Women Feel Like They are Left Behind in the Independence Debate.

A recent poll from the Law Society of Scotland asked in a poll how well informed people felt about the issues that were being debated ahead of the referendum. The poll found that while 62% of men said they were very well informed or fairly informed, but only 49% of women said the same.

Margaret McDougall MSP, said: “Whether you are voting yes or no, it should worry us all that women across Scotland don’t feel as if the independence debate is engaging with them. This is one of the biggest decisions Scotland will take and it is the duty of both sides to make sure everyone across Scotland feels like they are part of the process.”

“Instead of engaging with women the SNP seem to see us as “political pawns”, promising more childcare, but only if you vote the right way, when they can deliver these changes now. Instead of a vision for changing women’s lives, they are only offering a vision to win your vote. Independence is being placed before our needs and that uncertainty needs to change.”

“The Labour Party have a clear commitment to women and we won’t let the independence referendum get in the way of delivering real change and we will deliver if we win the 2015 General Election. On Equal Pay, if the big companies don’t start to publish how much they really pay women and men, we’ll bring back the legislation we passed before the election, but that the Tories ditched.”

“Secondly we’ll change the law to require employers to take reasonable steps to accommodate new mums returning to work after maternity leave, in order to end the abuses by employers that leave around 5,000 women a year in Scotland with no job to go back to after their maternity leave.”

“In addition to this we will introduce ‘Make Work Pay’ contracts to incentivise firms to pay the living wage. Not just waiting for big companies to take action, but giving them a positive reason to increase pay.”

“These are tangible benefits that will be gained from a no vote in this year’s referendum. I believe we are better and stronger together, and so far all the SNP have offered are empty promises on changes that they could start to roll out now.”